Why Anecdotes Are So Powerful—and Dangerous

HubSpot’s flagship podcast The Growth Show has a new season! The host, Meghan Keaney Anderson, a VP of Marketing at HubSpot, interviews some amazing people like Rand Fishkin of Moz, Joe De Sena the creator of the Spartan Race, the CEO of Coffee Meets Bagel Arum Kang, and a bunch of other great guests.

You can find The Growth Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or just say "Play The Growth Show podcast" to any smart speaker.

1. Treat Yourself to an Alex Honnold Binge

Alex Honnold is the American rock climber who climbed the 3,000-foot face of El Capitan without ropes. Thankfully, a film crew was there to document it all. That film, Free Solo, is out in theaters now, but if you want to learn more about this absolutely incredible feat, here are a few things to check out:

Marketers should be equally wary and excited about the power of anecdotes. The narratives that drive our behavior and our customers' behavior can be used for good and evil.

Why does this matter? It matters because generalization is a widespread human bias, which means a lot of our understanding of the world actually is based on extrapolations made from relatively small sample sizes. Consequently, our individual behavior is shaped by potentially incomplete or inadequate facts that we use to make the decisions that are meant to lead us to success.

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